The mayor of London must urgently take action to ensure naming rights for the London Stadium are finally sold, an assembly member has said.
The arena, which is primarily occupied by West Ham United Football Club as the long-term tenants, is currently costing the Greater London Authority (GLA) around £19 million per year.
However, City Hall has been unable to secure a naming rights deal for the stadium, despite the idea first being floated in 2012. It has previously been estimated that naming rights could secure up to £4 million a year.
Naming rights are the commercial right to attach a sponsor’s name to a venue, so that the stadium is known by that name in broadcasts, on signage, on tickets and in the tenant club’s own communications. Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and Manchester City’s Etihad are the best-known examples in English football.
For the London Stadium, any deal has to satisfy three parties — the GLA as owner, the company that operates the venue, and West Ham as anchor tenant — and the division of the proceeds between them has been contested since the arena’s Olympic legacy arrangements were first drawn up.
Bassam Mahfouz, who chairs the London Assembly economy, culture and skills committee, has now asked Sir Sadiq Khan to bring together partners in order to “seriously reduce” the annual debt incurred by the capital’s taxpayers.
In a letter to the mayor, he wrote: “Given that 13 years have already passed since the signing of this agreement, little headway has been made in reducing the annual subsidy of almost £20 million and while there is a change in ownership at the club, we need to ensure this marks new impetus on all sides to seriously reduce this public subsidy.
“We believe that as mayor you could influence these decisions in a positive way.
“Where there are major commercial opportunities to generate income for the stadium, you could help bring partners together, in order to help all partners reach agreement.”
Scuppered
In the past, his committee heard, West Ham have often scuppered potential deals by increasing their demands whenever London Stadium LLP, the body that manages the arena, has managed to reach an agreement.
The partnership was originally incorporated as E20 Stadium LLP, a joint venture between the LLDC and Newham Council, and was renamed after a restructuring that placed it under Greater London Authority Holdings Limited.
However, Karim Virani, who was appointed as the club’s interim CEO in April, wrote to Mahfouz to express his desire to reach a “win-win” outcome for the GLA and West Ham.
“Both the stadium and West Ham are missing out on revenue that could be generated from naming rights,” he said in a written submission to the committee in July.
“I have initiated constructive dialogue on that and other key topics since I joined the Club two months ago and I hope that positive trajectory can continue.”
In a recent budget submission, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which transferred ownership of the stadium to the GLA in 2025, said there was a “significant risk” that naming rights would not be secured until at least 2028.
Challenging market
David Bellamy, the mayor’s chief of staff, has previously told the budget and performance committee: “The naming rights market does remain challenging. We are not the only major stadium in London that hasn’t secured a naming rights partner yet.
“Any deal has to work for the sponsor, the stadium and West Ham. We continue to be open to approaches and pro-actively looking at opportunities.”
West Ham’s relegation to the second tier of English football will cost the GLA around £1.8million extra next year, due to terms agreed in the contract and a higher number of league fixtures in the Championship leading to further operating losses.
“This estimate is not as high as first feared, but still represents a significant financial burden for London taxpayers,” Mahfouz wrote.
“This is money that might otherwise have been spent on public services or boosting London’s economy.”
Concerts
Other revenue-raising suggestions included more flexibility in when the stadium could host concerts. Due to the timing of the football season, the London Stadium doesn’t tend to put such events on in September.
A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “London Stadium sits at the heart of the world’s most successful Olympic and Paralympic legacy, helping to drive growth, investment and opportunity across east London.
“The reality remains that the previous mayor negotiated and approved a contract with West Ham United for London Stadium that is a bad financial deal for Londoners. The GLA has no choice but to honour the contract, which doesn’t provide any form of break clause and delivers significant losses to the taxpayer.
“The mayor has been clear that he would consider any credible proposal for the Stadium, provided it offers value for taxpayers, protects the public interest and preserves the wider economic, social and sporting benefits the venue delivers for London.”
